Vehicle safety ratings

IIHS tests evaluate two aspects of safety: crashworthiness — how well a vehicle protects its occupants in a crash — and crash avoidance and mitigation — technology that can prevent a crash or lessen its severity.

To determine crashworthiness, we rate vehicles good, acceptable, marginal or poor, based on performance in six tests: driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraints.

In the area of crash avoidance and mitigation, vehicles with available front crash prevention systems are rated basic, advanced or superior, based on the type of system and performance in track tests. We also test headlights and rate them good, acceptable, marginal or poor.

Safe vehicles for teens

Looking for a safe used vehicle for your teenage driver? If a new model isn't in your budget, consult our list of recommended used vehicles for teens.

Truck underride guards

We crash a midsize car into the backs of parked semitrailers to make sure the rear underride guards work. Trailers whose guards prevent underride in all three of our tests earn the IIHS TOUGHGUARD award.

More ways to compare

We've computed the number of drivers killed in crashes per million registered vehicle years for more than 150 models.

If you don't see a particular model listed, it's because we haven't tested it. We try to cover as much of the marketplace as we can, testing vehicles from a range of manufacturers and with high sales numbers. We don't release our testing schedule in advance.